The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1887-05-18

4,213,651 acres in 1856 to 2,2S6,00
acres in 1886. In respect to imports
and exports Great Britain is beginning
to show balance on the wrong side.
The imports of manufactured goods
into England has increased in value
from S1O,000,000 in 1860 to $685.
100000 in 1SS0-S4. For comparison of
the free-trade system and protective
system respectively, in the exports of
home produce, Mr.. Williamson pits
Great Britain against the two protec-
ZIONIST countries - Germany and the
United States. The statistics show
that while the exports of Great Britain
have decreased three per cent in eleven
years those of Germany have in that
time increased thirty-seven per cent
and the United States twenty per cent.
But Mr.. Williamson's article is of chief
interest to Americans in its refutation of
the charge of the free-traders that tariff
duty is always paid by the consumer.
First presenting table of the chief i'm
ports tobacco, tea, coffee, spirits and
wines) on which the United Kingdom
realized in customs duties during 1884
more than hundred millions of dollars,
he says:
1t may be conceded that, as a rule, the
consumer pays the greater portion of the
dut;as on tbasa iunorts hut ~ vya haar i'm
mind that supply and demand between
them alone fix price, and, therefore, unless
duty imposed curtail the supply, it cannot
affect market value, it is quite conceivable
that when duty is raised and an attempt
in consequence made to enhance prices
consumption is at once checked, and the
importer, rather than lose his market, con-
tents himself with a smaller profit, without
materially reducing the quantity he had
previously sent.
Even the final report of the royal
commission admitted " there can be
little doubt that the obstruction to our
trade, caused by the growing stringency
of commercial policy of those (protec-
tionisD countries, tends to make it far
less profitable. !" "This," Mr.. William
son remarks, &" from the free-trade ma
jority who signed that report is re-
markable. We have understood them
to hold, as an undisputed axiom, that
there never was duty which was not
paid by the consumers. Here is a can
did admission that while the trade is
larger the profits are less, owing to
the growing stringency of the CONNER
cial polcy--in other words, the importer
has to pay more for the privilege of
competing in the foreign market. He
pays the duty and not the consumer"
The evidence of eminent manufacturers
is adduced to prove not only that the
consumer does not pay the whole of
the duty but often, when the rate is
low, no portion of it. This is shown
to be the case in the Manchester manu-
features, the piano trade and particu-
larly in the shipment of wheat into
France from 1851 to 1880. In conclu-
sion Mr.. Williamson refers to Richard
Cobden's prediction, in 1S4S, that " the
time was at hand when other nations
would be compelled, by self-interest and
by the reality of prosperity, to follow
our example and adopt free-trade." sit
would be safer" Mr.. Williamson says,
to substitute this prediction: "The time
is at hand when England will be COM
PEELED, by self-inierest and the reality
of the prosperity of such nations as
America and Germany, to follow their
example and adopt protection"